| The Commodity Trader's Helper is best viewed with Microsoft's
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The Commodity Trader's Helper™ Demonstration Page This demonstration page is being presented to give you an idea of the appearance and navagational options available with the Commodity Trader's Helper. All of the links to the left are active and connect to sites on the World Wide Web. The tab bar, at the top of this window appears on all of the Helper's pages to allow you to quickly jump to any major section--most are disabled here because those pages are not available in the demonstration. The same is true for the links below. They are shown on this page to show that explanations are usually just a "click-away" when you are reading text material. Greetings to you traders and prospective traders, Are you finding yourselves endlessly going through your growing collection of newsletters, brochures, booklets, books and newspapers to find some tidbit of information that you just knew that you had seen somewhere. To help you out, we collected and organized information we considered useful into an easy-to-search compendium. Since you probably do nearly all of your various jobs at the computer, and are probably familiar with the Internet, a web-based system was the natural choice. So, we built the Commodity Trader's Helper and now you can quickly and easily find information. Many links used by the Commodity Trader's Helper connect to the World Wide Web, so you will need an internet connection to make full use of the Helper. Navigation Moving around the Commodity Trader's Helper is easy. It's a matter of using:
Each of these items will be explained further below. First, understand that the Commodity Trader's Helper is actually a collection of web pages installed on your hard drive. Your browser (e.g. MS's Internet Explorer or Netscape's Communicator) starts up and presents the tab bar that you now see at the top of this window. Next, a set of tabs are provided at the top of each window. Just click on one of those tabs to jump directly to that section:
The active tab ("Home" is the active tab right now) shows as light letters on a blue background. All the others (the ones you can jump to) show as black letters on a light background. A string of links is presented just under the active tab. For example, you can see "Introduction | Navigation | Warning" is now showing under the tabs. These links point to major sections on each page--just point and click to jump to one of these references. As you read through the Helper, you will notice words and phrases that are underlined and of a different color, like this: this is a hyperlink. The cursor turns into a hand with a pointing finger when moved over hypertext. If you click while the cursor is over the hypertext, your browser will jump to the page that is pointed to by the link. These links are provided to allow quick access to related or expanded information. After using a hyperlink, you can return to the page containing the hyperlink by clicking your Browser's "Back" button:
Clicking a hyperlink will have one of two distinctly different reactions:
Look at an example from the 1996 May Wheat market.
Let's further assume, that based on your particular trading method, you decided that wheat prices were ready to turn downward and that you acted by selling one contract on March 12 at the closing price of 483. Wheat didn't continue fall but rallied and by April 1 closed at 511.5:
Next you became disheartened by the market turning against your fortunes and tried to hold on and then finally relented only to liquidate your position on April 1. Assuming that you bought at the closing price, your loss would have been $1,425 plus commission:
This would have been a loss of 28-½ ¢ per bushel on a 5,000 bushel contract, thus, a total loss of $1,425. At that time, the initial margin requirement was between $1,000 and $1,100 making your loss greater than the money you originally invested in the project. This was only an example to demonstrate one of the many conditions under which you could suffer a loss. Had the example suffered several days of limit moves during which you may not be able to liquidate your position, the losses could have been much greater. It is important that you understand that losing is a very real possibility and that since the initial margin is much less than the value of the contract (in this case a margin of about $1,000 controlled a contract worth $24,150) the magnitude of your actual loss can be devastating.
With this in mind, understand that the Commodity Trader's Helper is offered only for your information and only sets forth definitions, explanations and data for your use in whatever trading method or scheme you choose to devise or adopt and follow. The CFTC formalizes this warning with the following statement: "Hypothetical or simulated performance results have certain limitations. Unlike an actual performance record, simulated results do not represent actual trading. Also, since the trades have not actually been executed, the results may have under- or over-compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated trading programs in general are also subject to the fact that they are designed with benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. The risk of loss in futures trading can be substantial. You should carefully consider whether such trading is suitable for you in light of your financial condition. Past results are not indicative of future results. There is a risk of loss in futures trading." The CFTC requires its members, which we are not, to publish this statement. |
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